


It Is for Him Who Has Done a Deed to Suffer.

by LapisLazooti



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Police, Crime Scenes, Dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Investigations, Minor Loki/Tony Stark, Murder, Murder Mystery, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychological Drama, Tony Stark Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 01:25:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16903485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapisLazooti/pseuds/LapisLazooti
Summary: Tony Stark is the lead Investigator in a series of missing person cases when his partner is murdered with seemingly no motive.





	It Is for Him Who Has Done a Deed to Suffer.

Spending a Wednesday afternoon in the interrogation room wasn't something uncommon for Tony. Looking past the two-sided mirror at a colleague he couldn't see on the other side, pacing around and leaning on the table and generally making everyone uncomfortable - It may as well be his job description.

What wasn't common, was being the one in the uncomfortably lonesome armchair with Bucky against the table, Steve in the chair adjacent to his, and the security camera focused in on him.

Because, hey, being detained on reasonable suspicion for the murder of the people closest to you was the perfect way to spend your day!

But that may be getting a bit ahead of everything.

\---

March 31st, 2018, at approximately 11:35 AM, Tony Stark rolled out of bed and gave his sleeping lover a kiss on the forehead before heading out the door. It was a Saturday, which meant it was his day off, which meant it was time for his Weekly-Weekend coffee shop run for himself and Loki. Two breakfast sandwiches, an Iced Caramel Brulee Latte for himself and a Vanilla Latte for Loki, as usual. Their Saturday breakfast menu was the same every day, with the recent stress of the ever-increasing missing person cases he was in charge of, and Loki was picky and- this had nothing to do with the way things went that morning.

When he returned back home, the lock on the front door was busted open. Loki always, always locked the door when Tony left. Not that they didn't feel safe in their home, but Tony was a paranoid fuck after everything he'd seen. It was a miracle they didn't have security cameras and about twenty alarm systems.

This wasn't a 'oh, the lock is broken and the door didn't shut' situation. This was consistent with forced entry. The lock was flat out broken, and the paint on the doorframe had been scrapped off just beside it. Someone had forced their way in, his guess was with a screwdriver or the end of a hammer, though forensics wasn't his area of expertise. And Tony, being the paranoid fuck that he was - was scared shitless. Loki was in there. He prayed to God (who he most definitely didn't believe in these days, with the heinous crimes he'd witnessed this far into his career) it was just a robbery, but there was a pit in his stomach that betrayed him.

There was no noise coming from inside the house. No screaming or crying, no sound of drawers and cabinets being flung open by an assailant searching for valuables. The dog wasn't even barking. Had they realized someone was still in the house and left? He sure hoped so. Maybe they'd started breaking in and booked it when he saw his car coming down the street. He called Steve's personal number rather than 911. He knew he shouldn't, but it was faster, and he needed fast.

"Hey, Tony wh-"

"I just came back from getting coffee, my house was broken into. I don't know if they're still inside, but Loki was still asleep. Can you send a couple of people down?"

Steve, bless his heart, didn't question anything. "I'll be down in just a few minutes."

Low and behold, with Tony living so close to work, Steve pulled up with Sam just over two minutes later in one of the cop cars. Tony hadn't dared to go in, lest he saw something he wouldn't be able to unsee, or more worryingly aggravated the offender if they were still inside. He opted for anxiously drinking his coffee while leaning against the siding of the house, his hands shaking with growing worry.

Sam had his hand on the holster of his gun as soon as they were on the small porch. Tony knew that meant they had a bad feeling about this too. None of them said a word, Steve moving to open the screen door only to be greeted by a whining and crying Jarvis, their dog, as soon as he heard the door open. He circled around their feet and pawed at their legs. Tony felt his heart drop.

"...Stay out here," Sam warned, and the two disappeared inside with Jarvis at their heels.

He heeded that warning, albeit hesitantly. He wasn't gone for more than half an hour, even with the weekend traffic and morning lines for coffee. So Loki would be okay, right? There wasn't enough time between the time he'd left and his arrival for anything to happen to them. Worst case scenario, Loki was minorly injured and they'd been robbed. He'd damn near chugged his coffee despite knowing the caffeine wouldn't help his nerves. It only made it harder to distinguish what was a gut feeling and what was the coffee kicking in and heightening his anxiety.

Every minute felt like an hour in Tony Time. Every minute that ticked on was one more minute he didn't know what had happened. Every minute his co-workers stayed inside the house was one where Loki didn't come out to greet him, to get their coffee and to tell him they were alright. They'd give their statement about the robber and the two would go to the mall to forget and to celebrate their safety.

"Yeah, Virginia, can you send the CSI unit, a couple of officers, and an ambulance down to Stark's house." He heard Steve's voice from the other side of the door. "No, he's alright. Yeah, Thank you,"

Tony felt sick to his stomach. The feeling of pure dread lining his stomach wasn't foreign to him, though this time around this dread felt red hot within him, filling him to his throat and making it hard to breathe. Unlike the normal crime scenes he went to, this was personal. He usually got this disgusting gut feeling walking into a murder scene.

Loki was dead.

He covered his mouth as strangled, small sobs poured from his throat. What had they done to deserve this? This random fucking crime, why did they have to be the victim? Was this just another knot in the endless string of the universe's Fuck You's? He felt a strong hand on his shoulder and doesn't even turn to look at Steve.

"Loki has passed on," Steve confirmed his worst fear and gut instinct in four horrid words. He felt no need to sugar coat it; saying they'd been asleep for most of the attack or that it hadn't been painful wouldn't do any good. Tony could take one look at the scene and tell him otherwise. "We won't know anything for sure until CSI gets here, but it looks like a strangulation. There's a tie laying next to them on the bed, and..." Steve stops when Tony puts his hand up. Instead of continuing, he pulls Tony into a hug.

It's not professional. Tony's the only witness and therefore possible suspect, but he's a friend, too. He's a friend mourning a partner. Steve had sympathy for that.

Though it wasn't long before Tony was pulled away from him for questioning and Steve headed off to do the typical first responder documentation along with Sam. Tony hated crying like this in front of the people who looked up to him, who worked for him. Even with the shock, he couldn't stop.

"Where were you this morning?" Officer Rhodes asked.

"The L&L coffee shop. I- I woke up, saw Loki was still asleep, and went to get the store. They'll have CCTV footage and you can check the GPS on my phone-"

"You aren't a suspect, Tony." Yet, at least. "We're just doing the routine witness questioning, you don't have to worry about the technicalities yet. "Do you know who could have done this? Did you see anyone around the house before you left? Any known enemies of Loki?"

"I know a lot of people didn't like them, but I can't think of anyone that hated them. And I didn't see anyone, but they probably saw me leave if they got in and out so fast. Right?" He was more qualified to guess that than Rhodey was. He didn't know why he asked. He knew everything pointed to this being a premeditated attack or robbery seeing as the offender had gotten in and out in under half an hour. They had to have been waiting for the right time.

"Most likely, yeah."

"It was probably targetting me, I have more enemies than-"

"Tones, just take it easy. You know you probably won't get assigned to this case, so don't go putting the investigator hat on. It's too personal and you've got enough on your plate as it is. You'll be dealing with enough between witness statements, work, and getting the- the funeral arrangements in place." Rhodey was hesitant to mention it for good reason. Tony visibly cringed until his long-time friend patted his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "We'll take good care of the case, don't you worry. I'm sorry for your loss."

\--

The next few days held a lot of whiskey and staring at the wall of Tony's hotel room, interjected with station visits both for questioning and to work on his ongoing cases to keep himself sane despite everyone wanting him to take time off. He'd been ruled out as a suspect, thank god, the stress of it was something he certainly didn't need. 

The CCTV footage had been searched and placed Tony getting coffee at the time of the attack, and the GPS on his phone confirmed it. Despite the crime scene being in his home and there being the possible motive of a lover's quarrel or abuse gone too far, his alibi was solid. 

Loki's cause of death was ligature strangulation - by one of Tony's own ties. That was probably the most painful details of the case. It felt like a punch to the gut, a taunt. Their trachea crushed, red markings left around their throat where the tie had been wrapped around. 

The motive hadn't been decided upon, nor had any suspects been identified. The screwdriver that had been used to break into the house was found dropped next to the bed, but no DNA evidence could be found on it. There was no sign of fingerprints belonging to anyone other than Loki and Tony. No fingerprints on the closet doorknob, even, which would have had to been opened to get a tie. There wasn't even any DNA found beneath Loki's fingernails where they may have grabbed their attacker in defense. Gloves and a thick coat was the consensus. 

It hadn't been a robbery gone wrong as he'd originally thought. Nothing had been taken, not even made to look like they'd been looking for something. The ring he was going to propose to Loki with soon was still in the drawer of the bedside table. That would have been so easy to find, so what was the damn motive? Just walking in and needlessly killing an innocent person was such a horrid thing to do. It was bad no matter what, it just seemed all the more cruel and unnecessary when the only goal seemed to just... Kill. Not a passion killing, not a robbery gone wrong, the murderer just wanted to wipe someone off of the face of the earth and watch the light leave their eyes.

The funeral made it all real.

Tony sat with the family, with Loki's brother and their mom. Frigga held Thor close under one arm and Tony in the other as they both sobbed. They'd all lost so much, the world had lost so much with Loki's departure from it. They were an amazing, funny person who loved pranks and making people laugh, who through all their trauma loved fully and tried their best regardless. They were themselves unapologetically.

The funeral was short and sweet, with not many people in attendance. That was the way they would have wanted it, though. They wouldn't have wanted anyone there who didn't truly care for them. Tony placed the small box containing the would-have-been engagement ring among the flowers on the casket.

And good god, heaven knows he was going to get blackout drunk the second any alcohol came within a hundred-foot radius of him. He'd never felt more destroyed in his life; even the death of his parents hadn't broken him to this degree. Between the guilt of knowing he possibly could have stopped this, and the twisting feeling in his gut that this had happened to target him, he wasn't sure how he was going to bounce back. At least rock bottom was within his reach and it couldn't get much worse than this.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Tony." May Parker's voice came soft and sweet from behind him, Peter at her side in his oversized suit with the tie hanging too long and the blazer boxer around his frame.

He was Peter's mentor, of sorts. They met through a program similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters where an adult signed up to be matched with a youth in need. In this case, Peter had lost his parents and now lived with his aunt. He was neurodivergent and LGBT, bullied constantly and in need of a father figure. The two bonded instantly, once they were matched. Peter wanted to be a cop when he got older and Tony could help him prepare for that.

"Thank you, May." He nodded, voice cracking and lip quivering. He saw Peter look down with this sad look, like it was hard to see him like this. He couldn't blame him.

"We're here if you need anything. I know your home is still a little bit of a, ah, crime scene- so if you need a place to stay, mi casa es su casa. Anything else you need, we'll try our best to provide, even if it's just a good home cooked meal."

as touched as he was, he couldn't do anything but nod for that very reason. If he went to thank her again he was sure he'd start sobbing again. He couldn't do it anymore. His eyes were red and puffy and his throat was raw. Before he had the chance to try and speak, Peter clung to him with a strong hug for such a small boy (fourteen but a late bloomer, no thanks to being so poor for such a large chunk of his life that lead to less than optimal nutrition). "I hope you can stop losing people now. You don't deserve it." Peter whispered. 

Yeah, there were the waterworks again.

"I hope so too, kid."

**Author's Note:**

> me: how can i combine fanfic with my love for true crime and forensics
> 
> this is how, apparently. I would love love LOVE to hear thoughts on this, i'm still lowkey afraid this is a dumb idea lmao


End file.
